Tadej Pogačar added the fourth of five Monuments to his one-day race tally this weekend, leaving only Paris-Roubaix remaining to finish the set.
Should he win Paris-Roubaix, Pogačar would become only the fourth rider – behind the Belgians Eddy Merckx, Roger De Vlaeminck and Rik Van Looy – to complete the feat, with all three of those winning between 1958 and 1979. There’s even talk of Pogačar becoming the first rider to win all five Monuments in one year.
Pogačar has already won Strade Bianche in 2026 and seems to be in unstoppable form again this year. But what does it take to win road cycling’s longest race? Here are the key numbers that underpinned Pogačar‘s 2026 Milan-San Remo win.
45.5
Pogačar covered the race’s 298km at an average speed of 45.5km, finishing after 6hrs 35mins 49secs in the saddle. That’s a little slower than Mathieu van der Poel’s average of 47.70km/h for the 2024 Paris-Roubaix. But Milan-San Remo has over 2,000m of ascent en route, including the Passo del Turchino and the five climbs in the final 50km.
79.9
Pogačar‘s maximum speed during the race was 79.9km/h, according to Strava, recorded on the run-in to the Cipressa climb. His maximum cadence shown on Strava was 129rpm, apparently on the same stretch of road.
8.49
Pogačar‘s time to the top of the Cipressa, the penultimate climb of the race and the longest in the finale, was 8mins 49secs. This beat by a few seconds his time in last year’s race, when he set a time of 8mins 57secs, before finishing third behind van der Poel and Filippo Ganna.
It was all the more impressive, considering Pogačar had started towards the back of the field, having crashed along with others as he approached the base of the climb.
According to Strava, Pogačar also recorded the third fastest time ever on the 6.84km ascent and descent of the Poggio, the last climb before the finish, where he was bested by Matej Mohorič in 2024.
5
The number of times Pogačar has ridden Milan-San Remo. His first Milan-San Remo was in 2022, when he finished fifth, having been out-descended by Mohorič with his dropper seatpost.
He was back in 2023, finishing fourth in a race won by van der Poel. The next year, Pogačar was up to third, behind Jasper Philipsen and Michael Matthews, then third again in 2025.
It’s only at the fifth attempt, this year, that Pogačar has added this fourth Monument to his tally, leaving him only a win in Paris-Roubaix needed to have completed all five. We reckon he might win all five this year, becoming the first rider to do so.
A handful of centimetres
Pogačar beat Tom Pidcock by mere centimetres in the final two-up sprint to the line. Although Pidcock won the unofficial sixth Monument, Strade Bianche, in 2023, he’s yet to garner a Monument win. Pogačar was only four seconds ahead of the charging bunch, led in by Wout van Aert.
415
Pogačar‘s estimated FTP in watts is 415. The actual numbers are kept a close secret within his UAE Team Emirates-XRG team, but this is a value that's been estimated based on ride data shared in 2024. That gives him a power-to-weight figure close to 7W/kg and he can keep up 340 watts on a five-hour zone two training ride. His resting heart rate? That’s around 37.
3,898
The number of calories Pogačar burned during the race, as estimated by Strava. According to Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, he was matching that number in 2023. Maybe he should take to the start line next year…
